We had originally planned to follow a corner system out right through the impending scoop, however loose death blocks the size of TV sets 60ft above where Steve was belaying meant we (Steve) chose a line out to the left. At first we were dismayed to have to turn away from this aesthetic final pitch but soon realised our new line took us to the highest point of the West Face, a most excellent outcome.
Rounding a blind lip with some aid up an overhang and curving crack the summit seemed impossibly far away and the exposure over the north west face was immense and very impressive. There are some appealing lines to the left, which appeared to be less steep and with more ledges. One could even get a plumb direct line.
It was a hard five days on the wall and a 24 hour continuous push from the summit to Mukut awaited us. Through the night we began to rappel our pitches with our massive pigs. Crashing back to the Trench our fondly named jungle base camp and quickly realising it was no place to spend the night in the dirt headed for Mukut.
The prospect of a final run back in to the forest to collect our remaining kit still hung over us. A quite depressing task in deed, but eventually it was completed.
Now we're kicking back in KL for a few days and enjoying the normality of tourism. Keep watching the blog as we will post some photos of the climb from our digital cameras in the next couple of days.
Thanks for reading!
Matt and Steve.
